Commission Members

Originally from New Brunswick, Claire is a senior HR consultant with 25+ years of experience in all facets of human resources management including senior HR leadership roles in one of the largest energy companies in Canada.   Having lived and worked in all Maritime provinces as well as in Alberta and British Columbia, Claire has gained a broad view of HR with expertise in areas such as strategic HR, diversity, human rights, discrimination, harassment, executive compensation, employee relations, change management, training and development, and recruitment.  

Her vast HR experience includes HR generalist, specialist and management roles with various federal government departments, large private sector companies as well as with a wide spectrum of organizations in her current senior HR consultant role.  

Claire holds a Bachelor or Business Administration from the Université de Moncton, a diploma in Adult Education from St. Francis Xavier University and completed the Advanced Leadership Program at the Thunderbird School of Global Management in Phoenix, Arizona.  

Outside of work, Claire enjoys gardening, traveling, fitness and spending time with her four grown children.  She resides in south-east New Brunswick with her husband Martin. Bio up-to-date as of August 13, 2020.

Randy Dickinson is a long-time disability and human rights advocate as a lifelong resident of New Brunswick. He served in various professional positions during his career such as Director of Camping and Community Relations and then Executive Director of the Canadian Rehabilitation Council for the Disabled now known as Easter Seals NB. Randy then served for many years as the first Executive Director of the Premier’s Council on Disabilities. During this period, he was seconded to act as the Executive Director of the Premier’s Council on Health Strategy and also served as the Executive Director of the Canadian Paraplegic Association before returning as the Executive Director of the Premier’s Council on Disabilities until his
                                        retirement.

For his community service, Randy and was awarded the Order of Canada in 1999 and was named as a Member of the Order of New Brunswick in 2022. He has also received various other public recognitions for his professional and volunteer efforts on behalf of persons with disabilities.

Randy served as the Chairperson of the Commission from 2010-2015 and is an active member of the Age-Friendly Community Advisory Committee for the City of Fredericton; Vice-President of the John Wood Foundation; Co-Chair of N.B. Disability Awareness Week; and was previously appointed to a term as the Chairperson of the Premier’s Council on Disabilities.

Randy lives in Fredericton with his wife Karen who is an occupational therapist. Biographical note as of August 15, 2022.

Shelley Dumouchel was called to the New Brunswick Bar in 1994 after obtaining her Law Degree and Bachelor of Arts Degree from the University of New Brunswick.

From 1994 until 2008, she worked as an associate lawyer in both Oromocto and Fredericton gaining significant experience in the areas of Family Law, Insurance Law, Personal Injury, Real Estate and Wills and Estates. From 2008 until 2011, Shelley was Senior Legal Counsel for the Office of the Public Trustee, Province of New Brunswick. In 2011, Shelley returned to private practice and has had her own law firm since this date.

A native of Perth- Andover, NB, Shelley lives with her family in Fredericton.  In addition to raising a family and practicing law, Shelley is one of the founders of the Oromocto Legal Clinic, an alternate Chairperson for the Mental Health Review Board,  an adjudicator under the Liquor Control Act and a board member for the New Brunswick Human rights Commission. Bio up-to-date as of March 25, 2020.

Elizabeth Forestell grew up in Saint John New Brunswick and graduated from University of New Brunswick. In her 40-year career in non profit management, Elizabeth worked in the areas of mental health, youth justice, criminal justice, violence against women, refugee services and a wide range of community services, retiring in 2020 as President and CEO of The Neighbourhood Group in Toronto.

Elizabeth is happily back in her hometown of Saint John. Biographical note as of August 15, 2022.

Dr. Shannonbrooke Murphy holds a BA (Hons) in Peace and Conflict Studies from the University of Toronto, an LLM in International Human Rights Law from the University of Galway, and a PhD in Law from Middlesex University. She relocated from Ireland to New Brunswick in 2019 to take up a position as Endowed Chair in Human Rights and Assistant Professor in the Human Rights Department at St. Thomas University, where she also serves on the faculty trade union executive.

In Ireland, she worked for more than a decade as a legislative, policy, and political advisor to elected representatives at all institutional levels on matters of equality and human rights protections in domestic law, constitutional law, EU law, and under international treaty obligations including the Good Friday Agreement. In this brief, she worked on a wide array of issues such as the human rights to healthcare and housing, police accountability and oversight mechanisms for human rights compliance, redress of historical systemic human rights violations related to colonization and religious institutions, as well as the equality rights of ethnic minorities, women’s rights, children’s rights, the rights of people with disabilities, LGBTI rights, workers’ rights, and the rights of economically marginalized individuals and groups.

She lives in Nashwaaksis (Fredericton Northside) and would like to improve her French and learn Wolastoqey. She is grateful to have been welcomed in New Brunswick and considers it an honour to serve its peoples. Bio up-to-date as of March 9, 2023.

I would like to thank the Province of New Brunswick for giving me the opportunity to serve as a member of the Human Rights Commission so that, together, we can uphold respect for the rights universally recognized in this officially bilingual Canadian province with one of the most culturally diverse populations in the world.

Like other societies around the world, ours is constantly evolving. In recent years, for example, we have witnessed the emergence of various social movements in New Brunswick and across Canada focused on concerns including respect for human dignity as well as human rights in hope that the leaders of our country, Canada, and, in particular, those of our province, New Brunswick, ensure that the principle by which we are all born free and equal before the law is respected. As a result, we all enjoy the same human dignity and rights in New Brunswick regardless of our origin or the colour of our skin.

With regards to me, I am originally from the Democratic Republic of the Congo and have lived in Moncton for more than 20 years. I have a master’s degree in business administration (MBA) and a bachelor’s degree in marketing from the Université de Moncton.

Based on my education and experience, New Brunswick society has offered me the privileges of teaching at the Dieppe campus of the Collège communautaire du Nouveau-Brunswick as well as becoming an entrepreneur. Okana-Solutions Marketing (O.-S.M.), founded in 2000 and located in Moncton, New Brunswick, and for which I serve as consultant, is the first Francophone consulting firm to have conducted, in 2002, a study on the settlement and integration of Francophone immigrants in our province. This study raised the interest of Acadian and Francophone communities throughout the Atlantic provinces with respect to Francophone immigration, and the round table on Francophone immigration and centres for the settlement and integration of Francophone immigrants, among other things.

In terms of political and community involvement, I was president of the New Brunswick New Democratic Party (NB NDP) from 2019 to 2022, and I served as a member of the board of directors of House of Nazareth in Moncton for seven years from 2016 to 2023.

From 2010 to 2013, I was president of the Moncton Intercultural Heritage Association. During my time as president, I organized two exploratory visits, one for Black youth and the other for Black women and children. The purpose of both visits was to expose them to Acadian and Canadian history. During the first visit (in 2011), the young people visited the site of the Acadian Deportation in Grand-Pré, Nova Scotia. They also had the opportunity to meet the then Lieutenant Governor, the Honourable Mayann Elizabeth Francis, and a number of Acadian and Indigenous dignitaries. During the second visit, which was organized to Prince Edward Island in 2012, the women and children visited Confederation Bridge, Province House, and the Acadian Museum in Miscouche. At Province House in Charlottetown, for example, they learned about the history of Canada, including the birth of the Canadian nation and the list of Canada’s Fathers of Confederation. Among other things, the women and children learned that E.B. Chandler, Charles Fisher, J.H. Gray, J.M. Johnson, Peter Mitchell, W.H. Steeves, Sir S. Leonard Tilley, Robert Wilmot, and George Brown were among the Fathers of Confederation from New Brunswick.

In my leisure time, I strive to walk an average of 45 minutes each day. I learn by reading books and articles on topics such as immigration and cultural diversity, leadership, public speaking, religion, and organizational management.

I very much look forward to meeting you so that we can get to know each other and make our own contribution toward continuing to create a thriving and culturally diverse New Brunswick where human dignity and rights are respected.

Phylomène has more than 25 years of experience in administrative management. She served as editorial project coordinator at the Revue de l’Université de Moncton for more than a decade and as executive director of Community Adult Learning Centre in southeastern New Brunswick. She is currently an administrative manager at Vitalité Health Network and a member of the New Brunswick Judicial Council.

Phylomène is well known for her community involvement and her commitment to equality for women and the professional and social inclusion of men and women immigrating to New Brunswick.

After immigrating to New Brunswick from the Democratic Republic of the Congo more than 30 years ago, she completed programs in business management and information technology at the Université de Moncton.

Named one of the Top 25 Immigrants in the Maritimes in 2018, she was also recipient of the Black Excellence Award in 2015 and 2016 for excellence in leadership and influence.

Among other volunteer activities at the community level, Phylomène was the first co-president of the New Brunswick Women’s Council and founder of the New Brunswick Provincial Council of People of African Descent (CPPAANB).  She has served on a variety of boards and was active on parent-school support committees, the mental health community advisory committee of Vitalité Health Network, the Committee on Poverty and Social Inclusion of the City of Moncton, and the Artsnb Commission on Cultural Diversity. She is mother to Nash Zangio. Biographical note as of August 15, 2022.